Sailors lined the deck of the USS Cole, saluting a giant US flag to the strains of the national anthem as the destroyer damaged in an apparent suicide bombing was towed out of Aden yesterday and headed home.
"What happened on October 12th was a tragedy. It was an insult, it was a crime. But I think what was clear this morning as we watched the USS Cole is that it was not in any way a defeat," the US ambassador to Yemen, Ms Barbara Bodine, told reporters.
"The Cole left proudly. She left with the help of her friends, but she still left very proudly," Ms Bodine said.
US and Yemeni patrol boats mounted with machine guns escorted the warship out of the southern Yemeni port amid heightened security imposed since the October 12th blast, which killed 17 US sailors.
Yemeni warplanes flew overhead as four tugboats helped the grey destroyer leave the dockside.
US helicopters from an aircraft carrier flew overhead as the ship headed for open waters to be loaded aboard a Norwegian heavy-lift vessel, the Blue Marlin, hired to carry it back to the United States for repairs.
Following a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, US journalists seeing off the Cole appeared puzzled as the music from the destroyer shifted to an upbeat rap song by Kid Rock.
Witnesses have said a boat laden with explosives with two men on board blew up alongside the Cole while it was refuelling in Aden, blasting a hole in the ship's side.
Ms Bodine said US support teams, who had been assisting in rescue efforts, were also leaving Aden but that the investigation into the blast would continue.
"The end of this phase does not in any way mean that we're finished with the Cole attack. The investigation will continue. This will be the second phase and it could be a long one," Ms Bodine said.
"We are glad to see it leave," said a 19-year-old Yemeni Aden port worker as he stood with some 50 Yemenis at the Gold Moore coast watching the destroyer leave.
"We don't want this ship to be an excuse for the Americans to stay here."
Another Yemeni wished the Cole a safe trip home.
"This was a terrorist attack and we are against terrorism," he said.
US and Yemeni officials have said they believe Islamic militants may have been behind the attack, which two little-known Islamist groups admitted to have carried out.